Simulated brick construction



July 7, 1970 5. L. BACHNER 3,518,799

SIMULATED BRICK CONSTRUCT I 0N Filed Jan. 9, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 6 4M ffW/ZW ///0/Wqy5.

July 7, 1970 cs. L. BACHNER 3,513,799

SIMULATED BRICK CONSTRUCTION Filed Jan. 9. 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Will. 0 o y /"/d 4 L- J United States Patent US. Cl. 52-173 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An imitation decorative facing structure having a mortar joint area along two adjoining edges and a rear side which lies in a common bearing plane, and including bearing ridges lying in the bearing plane which enable the bottommost brick in a stack of bricks to he slid out wardly beneath the stack without jamming.

This invention relates generally to ornamental or decorative construction materials, and particularly to a facing structure having the appearance and texture of brick and a method of making it.

Summary of the invention Accordingly a primary object is to provide a facing structure which has the appearance and, to a large extent, the texture of conventional brick.

Another object is to provide a facing structure which has the appearance of conventional brick, including, if desired, a flecked or speckled appearance which is commonly found in ancient brick.

Another object is to provide a facing structure as above described which includes, as an integral part thereof, a mortar joint area extending about one end and one side thereof which enables a number of similar facing structures to be assembled to a base surface by conventional means so as to provide the appearance of a solid wall of said facing structures.

Yet another object is to provide a facing structure of the type above described which has an irregular, roughened, exposed surface, yet which will feed without binding or jamming from the bottom of a stack of similar, substantially horizontally stacked structures.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description thereof.

Brief description of the drawings The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying figures wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wall area to which the decorative facing structures of this invention have been applied;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the exterior side of a facing structure;

FIG. 3 is a perspective View of a corner piece;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the exterior side of a facing structure;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view;

FIG. 6 is a bottom plan view;

FIG. 7 is a partial, sectional view to an enlarged scale taken substantially along the line 7-7 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a partial, sectional view taken substantially along the line 88 of FIG. 6; and

FIG. 9 is a partly diagrammatically and partly sectional view illustrating the feeding ability of the structure from the bottom of a stack of similar facing structures.

Description of the preferred embodiment Like reference numerals will be used to refer to like 3,518,799 Patented July 7, 1970 parts throughout the following description of the drawings.

Although it is contemplated that the invention is applicable to a wide variety of decorative facing structures a brick surface has been chosen for purposes of illustration. The word brick or language of similar import will hereafter be used when referring to the illustrated embodiment of this invention, but it should be understood that this specific form has been chosen for convenience of description only.

A corner section of a wall area is illustrated in FIG. 1. The wall 10 may be of any conventional construction. It is contemplated, for example, that the brick of this invention may be applied directly to a conventional, plaster wall. Or, if desired, and assuming that the base wall has a rough and rather irregular texture, an overlay of p ywood, plasterboard, wallboard or any other material may be attached to the base wall by firring strips or any other suitable means. It is only preferable that the base surface to which the bricks are applied be relatively smooth. A plurality of individual bricks are indicated at Ill, 12 and 13. As illustrated in FIG. 2, each brick includes, on the exterior side 14, a brick area 15 and a mortar joint area 16. Referring to FIG. 5, it will be noted that the mortar joint area 16 is at a generally lower level than the brick area 15. Both the brick and mortar joint areas 15 and 16, however, may be described as non-planar, irregular surfaces composed of a plurality of high points and low points. In the particular brick illustrated in FIG. 4, a high area, in this instance a ridge area is indicated at 17 and a depressed area at 18.

A right hand corner brick is indicated at 19 in FIG. 1 and shown in greater detail in FIG. 3. From a comparison of FIGS. 2 and 3 it will be noted that the texture and appearance of the exterior side of the corner brick and the flat or wall brick are substantially the same, the only constructional difference being the L-like configuration of the corner brick as contrasted to the planar-like construction of the wall brick. It will be understood that a left hand corner brick 20 would be similar, though reversed in component parts, from the right hand corner brick 19 shown in FIG. 3.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 through 8, and particularly FIGS. 5 and 6, it will be noted that the interior side 22 of the brick includes a discontinuous bearing surface indicated generally at 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 and a depressed, attachment area indicated generally at 29.

The bearing area consists essentially of fiat surfaces 23, 24, 25 and 26 which, in this instance, extend about the periphery of the brick on the interior side. Areas 27 and 28 are flat ridges whose purpose will appear hereinafter. Suflice to say that these ridges preferably lie in the same plane as the peripheral bearing areas 23-26. From FIG. 7 it will be noted that hearing ridge 27 includes slanted sides 30, 31 but it will be apparent that a wide variety of shapes may be employed within the scope of the invention.

From FIG. 8 it will be noted that the inner surface of the brick underlying depressed area 18 lies in substantially the same plane as the peripheral bearing area 23-26. It will thus be noted that in the area in which the section line 8-8 in FIG. 6 appears there is no well defined ridge means. Since a depressed area 18 has been formed on the exterior side of the brick, the interior side has been thickened beneath the depressed area 18 to provide an adequate thickness to the structure. This re sults in obliteration of well defined side walls on the ridge means 28. Although a depressed and bulged area has been indicated in the region of one of the ridge means 2728, it will be obvious that it is within the scope of the invention for one or more of such depressed and bulged areas 3 to appear at other locations, or not at all, within the brick portions of the structure.

The attachment area 29 includes means for facilitating anchorage of the facing structure to a mounting surface. In this instance a plurality of truncated cones or pips 32 have been shown. It will be understood, however, that it is quite Within the scope of the invention to employ different, functionally equivalent means.

From FIGS. 5 and 9 it will be noted that the interior side of each brick, which becomes the bottom side when stacked as in FIG. 9, lies flat against the brick which is next below, with the high points of a lower brick bearing against areas in the bearing plane on the interior or bottom side of the brick next above.

The use and operation of the invention is as follows:

The decorative brick of this invention is preferably formed by the injection molding process. In this process a suitable material mix is injected under pressure into molds which have a cavity conforming to the finished product as illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6, for example.

It will be understood that the material used may vary widely, and that different materials may be required for dissimilar applications, or a number of different materials may be suitable for a given application. As an example, the primary molding material may be a butadiene/ styrene copolymer material to which has been added desired coloring materials to produce the desired color effect. A typical formulation for a light beige'brick color may be as follows:

Reground hi-impact butadiene/styrene copolymer-10O lbs.

Pg. #3 beige pigment-62 grs.

Yellow pigment-12 grs.

OR 540 white pigment37 grs.

Gray pigment50 grs.

In order to achieve a flecked or speckled appearance to the brick, such as is found in ancient brick, charrable wood fiber derivative materials may be added. These materials must have the ability to char by virtue of the heat which is present during the molding operation. Paper in finely divided form, such as confetti, may be employed with good results. The amount of confetti added may be varied as desired, depending upon the amount and frequency of flecking or speckling desired. For the above formulation, about 85 grams of confetti has been used to advantage.

It will be understood that the number of colors, and the total weight of the color materials may be varied within wide limits. For a beige brick, 150-175 grams of biege, yellow, white and/or gray pigments may be added, depending upon whether a light, medium or dark biege color is desired. For a white brick 300-380 grams of white and gray pigment may be used to advantage, depending upon whether a light or dark shade is desired. And for other color bricks, up to 1,000 grams or slightly more of red, and/or brown, and/or black pigments may be employed.

After injection, ejection, and trimming, the bricks may be pasesd through a painting machine which will apply a paint which is the color of mortar to the mortar joint area 16. It is very desirable to handle the bricks in a horizontal stack since the painting may be done rather rapidly and the bricks are adaptable to stacking because of their uniform dimensions. A typical painting operation is illustrated generally in FIG. 9 wherein three bricks, 34, 35 and 36, are shown stacked upon a table or other surface 37 preparatory to movement toward a painting station indicated at 38. The mechanism for moving each brick includes a ram or push-rod 39 which is connected to a tongue-like pusher 40 by a bracket 41. Any suitable source of power, such as an air cylinder, may be employed to actuate push-rod 39. In the illustrated position of FIG. 9 the pusher 40 engages the non-mortared edge of the lowermost brick 34 in the stack of bricks.

Since the ridges 27, 28 and the peripheral bearing areas 23-26 form a bearing plane at the lowermost level of the cross-setcional thickness of the brick, each brick which is engaged by the pusher 40 will slide easily out from beneath the stack of bricks about it. In effect the ridges 27, 28 and the peripheral bearing area 23-26 rest or ride upon the various high points in the exterior side of the brick.

After painting, the individual bricks may be attached to a wall surface 10 by means of a suitable cement, as indicated at 42, in FIG. 1. Any one of a member of commerically available cements may be used.

Although the invention has been described as applied to a decorative brick structure, it will be understood that it may take other forms and accordingly the scope of the invention should be limited only by the scope of the hereinafter appended claims when construed in the light of the pertinent prior art.

I claim:

1. The decorative facing structure of claim 2 further characterized in that the heat charrable wood fiber derivative material is confetti.

2. A decorative facing structure, said structure including:

an exterior side, and

an interior side,

said exterior side having a nonplanar, irregular surface with high points and low points,

said interior side having a plurality of bearing points which lie in a common bearing plane, and

means for facilitating sliding movement of the interior side of a first structure across the exterior side of a second structure with which it is in stacked, bearing engagement,

said decorative facing structure being further characterized in that it contains the following constituents in substantially the following proportions:

lb. reground butadiene/ styrene copolymer, ap-

proximately -1050 grams of color pigment, and

a sufiicient quantity of a heat charrable wood fiber derivative material to impart a dark, flecked appearance.

3. A decorative facing structure, said structure including:

a decorative, exterior side, said exterior side having a plurality of randomly located high points and low points of varying heights and depths,

an interior side, said interior side having a plurality of bearing points which lie in a common bearing plane, means for facilitating sliding movement of the interior side of a first decorative facing structure across the exterior side of a second decorative facing structure upon which it rests in stacked, bearing engagement, said means including:

generally linear bearing ridge means integrally formed with the interior side,

said generally linear bearing ridge means having a line of contact which lies in the aforesaid common bearing plane,

said generally linear bearing ridge means being generally aligned with the intended direction of movement,

said interior side being characterized by the absence of linear projections within its periphery which are disposed perpendicularly to the intended direction of movement,

a depressed area is formed on the exterior side of the facing structure along one end edge and an adjoining side edge,

said depressed area being' constructed and arranged to form, in conjunction with similar facing structures similarly oriented and in abutting relationship therewith, a depressed area which encircles a raised area formed within the encircling, depressed area,

an area within the raised area which is depressed with respect to those portions of the raised area which surround it, and

a substantially corresponding bulged area on the interior side, a portion of which lies substantially in the bearing plane.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,077,374 4/1937 Grossinger 106-97 3,361,841 1/1968 Lorentz 26037 1,173,678 2/1916 Munro 52-173 X 15 6 1,778,345 10/1930 Venzie 52-316 X 2,063,935 12/1936 Kirschbraum 52519 X 3,055,148 9/1962 Christy 52314 3,150,032 9/ 1964 Rubenstein. 3,248,834 5/1966 Polis 52-316 OTHER REFERENCES Popular Mechanics, October 1957, pp. 180, 183, 184, 185.

10 JOHN E. MURTAGH, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

